Lord Bannside, as the Revd Ian Paisley became, was not known as the “Big Man” of Irish politics for nothing. At 6ft 5in, and weighing around 20 stone, he literally towered over friend and foe alike. But even at the height of the “Troubles”, when his virulent rantings spread terror among Northern Ireland Catholics, he was able to make jokes about his size. In the 1970s, Paisley regularly spoke at gatherings advertised as “Monster Protestant Rallies”. On one occasion in 1972, he spotted The Sunday Times reporter Chris Ryder (who writes in this week’s Tablet on page 8), himself a man of considerable girth, below the stage and pointed to him. “I’m very grateful to Mr Ryder because he and I sometimes fly back to Belfast from London on the s